Minna Jail Break: Controller of Niger State Prisons Suspended

Minister of Interior, Abba Moro, has approved the suspension of the Controller of Niger State Prisons, Musa Maiyaki, and others pending the outcome of investigations into the Minna Prison jail break.

This is contained in a statement issued by the spokesman of the Nigeria Prisons Service (NPS), Ope Fatinikun, on Tuesday in Abuja.

It will be recalled that some armed men stormed the Minna Medium Prison in Niger state at about 4 pm on December 6th and released 275 inmates from the prison.

Fatinikun said the suspension was part of the recommendations of the new Controller-General of the NPS, Peter Ekpendu, to get to the root of the incident.

He said the officers who were suspended included the Niger State Controller of Prisons,Maiyaki, Officer in charge of the Minna Prisons,  Mohammed Bena, and all the officers on duty on the day of the jail break.

Fatinikun said that the boss of the prison service also ordered the immediate transfer of 55 officers from the zonal command and headquarters to the Minna Medium Security Prison and Old prison in Minna to beef up security in the attacked facility.

He, however, said that so far 115 inmates out of the 275 prisoners who escaped from the Minna Medium Security Prison had been re-arrested.

Fatinikun said that the inmates were recaptured through combined efforts of the military, security, intelligence agencies and
cooperation of surrounding communities.

He said that the service, in collaboration with other security agencies, would continue to work round the clock to ensure the arrest of others at large.